There are multiple indications in the large cache of US State Embassy cables WikiLeaks has been releasing (extended summary here) that the US State Department is willing to do just about anything to ensure the multinational agricultural biotech corporation, Monsanto, has its interests protected in countries around the world.

Cables show the State Department has been very active in defending Monsanto in France during the past decade. In one particular case, a French documentary, “The World According to Monsanto,” was released. A diplomat with the US embassy in Madrid immediately felt the need for “talking points” so it knew what to say in response to the content in the film.

On March 11, French public TV channel ARTE broadcasted a film entitled “The World According to Monsanto,” by freelance journalist Marie-Monique Robin. A book by the same name was released soon thereafter. Given the wide publicity generated by this film (for sale on line on ARTE’s website at http://www.arte.tv/monsanto, which, to date, has received over 100,000 “hits”), it has generated much attention particularly by biotech stakeholders. The film and book not only demonize Monsanto,but also characterize U.S. Government actions as lacking ethical and scientific integrity. Allegations include questioning of the concept of substantial equivalence; the assertion that political rather than scientific decisions have been made to authorize biotech products in the United States; and, that a “revolving door” between Monsanto and the U.S. Government has influenced the U.S. biotech regulatory system. The book and film are to be translated into English and other languages. Country team requests that Washington agencies provide talking points for use with a range of interlocutors on an “if asked” basis. [emphasis added]

The “Country Team” is particularly disturbed by all the names dropped in the film of people who may have been working on behalf of Monsanto while in government, like John Ashcroft, Tommy Thompson, Ann Veneman, Donald Rumsfeld and Clarence Thomas. The “Team” expresses interest in responding to the film but is aware that if they respond to the film with criticism they will only draw attention to the documentary. Still, they think “there is a role for public diplomacy, mainly focusing on the rigor of the US regulatory system and the positive role ag biotech can play in meeting world food needs, particularly in the developing world.”

The idea that Monsanto’s biotech, particularlty it’s genetically-modified seeds would be needed to “feed the developing world” is propaganda from Monsanto’s public relations department.

As is the case with a number of the cables, there may not be hard news in them, but they definitely reveal how US diplomats around the globe are used to advance corporate interests, not just for the good of the US economy but for the benefit of executives — including former or current US government officials — in individual corporations.

52 Responses
to “US Sought “Talking Points” to Combat Impact of French Documentary on Monsanto”

Perhaps even for the “benefit” of SPECIFIC “executives in individual corporations”? Might it go that far?

While there may not be, as you say, “hard news”, there is, nonetheless, rather important “news” to be gleaned from the fact that such “things” even go on … and do so, regularly, as adjuncts to official “policy”.

Thank you, Kevin, I hope that this post might be front-paged, as it is “information” with global consequence.

Most interesting. I follow a little blog that posts RightWing Emails that go out regularly. It’s a hodge-podge of rightwing talking points, at best, but it kinda-sorta acts (for me) as feed of what the propoganda du jour is.

Just recently there’s been a bunch of Anti-French screeds being shot out to rightwingers. Many of them, not a-typically, don’t make a lot of sense and can be summed up mainly as: Hate the French. Freedom Fries!

Of course, but it’s been going on since forever. One need only point to that other Sept 11 in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende at the behest of Anaconda Copper & Pepsico, just to name one example.

The “Country Team” is particularly disturbed by all the names dropped in the film of people who may have been working on behalf of Monsanto while in government, like John Ashcroft, Tommy Thompson, Ann Veneman, Donald Rumsfeld and Clarence Thomas

My understanding is that Bill Gates is now working in collusion with Monsanto on their programs to “feedpoison the developing world.” Anyone who wishes to praise Bill Gates for his alleged philanthropic largesse really needs to investigate what it IS that Bill Gates is “donating” to. My understanding (don’t have links; sorry; not great to provide unattributed assertions) is that Gates has been snapping up Monsanto stock. Others may be better informed than me and perhaps can provide links. I would love to be proven wrong, but I doubt it.

The interest of corporations are the national interest. Nobody in government ever defines what they mean by the “national interest”, but Monsanto talking points are exactly what government officials mean when they utter that phrase.

I live in Ohio, farm country. I commute about 70 miles one way and about 90% of that 70 miles is farm country. In prior summers, a 70 mile drive between cornfields would layer your windshield with really juicy bugs such that you’d have to stop and scrape.

I’ve driven the entire week without even using my washers. Sure, there are SOME bugs. But they’re small and infrequent.

I’d love to see a study relating the introduction of GM crops to bug populations. I’d bet theres a coorelation.

Just to clarify: Not disturbed because, “Oh my! Corporations influence government,” but disturbed because these were significant charges and the Embassy had no reply or answer if confronted by French leaders on the revelations in the documentary.

So the State Department is utilized as “soft power” to further the interests of US corporations, while the CIA and our armed forces are used when that’s not effective. This comes as no surprise when we see Obama in Chile pimping nuclear power plants as an energy solution.

I just learned that the chairman of Monsanto is also the chairman of NALCO who produces the poison Corexit that is so much worse than the oil that spilled into the Gulf and has led to the deaths of all the people who worked with it on the Exxon Valdez clean up and he has close ties to the Rothschild family that owns most of BP and who sold a large proportion of their stock before the “accident” and invested in a clean up company eight days before the spill.

I don’t have a link for you and have three screens going already, but I definitely feel those crops are responsible for the decline in Honey Bees.
I also feel that it is directly attributed to huge increases in food allergies of children.

It also shows up in bird populations, because birds live on bugs. I’ve noticed a sharp decline in songbirds in our part of the woods over the past three years. We used to have zillions of them. On the plus side, I discovered an osprey nesting on top of dead tree in the swamp down the road.

I do too, love it that is. I make corn salad, and even put some kernals in my cornbread as well. Years ago, I even raised a small patch of popcorn. Now, I can’t seem to find a true heirloom seed for it.

I’ve started to watch the birds more closely only in the last couple of years, so I don’t know about the trends. And mostly on my feeders, so pay more attention to seed eaters than insect eaters. I did note to myself just a day or two ago that I haven’t seen any kingbirds this year, though.

On the upside, it’s been a “good” year for monarchs. I have acres of milkweed, and when I mow the paths during the season, I’ll see one or two, typically. Last week I saw 16 during my path mowing. Some might have been repeats, but still that’s well above average.

Came in to see if Zinn’s People’s History is searchable in amazon. It is. If you have an account, search for “everyday practices”, go to p 183 and read the first full paragraph. It was written by Frederic Douglass in 1852. Stunning. The full 3 paragraph quote from Douglass, beginning on p 182 is also worth reading, but the last paragraph’s a MUST.

I also saw an article within the last week about new super weeds developing a resistance to Round Up although I cannot find the link now. This is one point that people who resist Monsanto have made from the begining.

I’ve noticed a decline in the number of bats that feed after sundown behind my home. When I moved here in 03, they were numerous, 10-20 bats flying around and back & forth for about a half hour every night, from late July thru August. One year I saw none, three or four years ago. They still come since, but only a half-dozen or fewer. Who knows what’s up? The several trees have grown and spread, so there may be more habitat for bugs that would be flying or swarming; or the trees might harbor more bug predators. Or the insects have gone extinct.

Though birds are plentiful here, I’ve seen hardly any moths. The cicadas are louder than I’ve ever heard them.

I’m part of the problem. Last year in early summer I spotted a fresh tent-worm tent in a small oak next to a large river birch. I poked it open, shredded it, and let the worms fall as they would to fend however they could, instead of coming and going all day in and out of their tent and defoliating the tree neighborhood. Life is tough.

I didn’t see a mention of this yet. Obama appoints Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, as the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods. It was one of the first clues that Obama had very different ideas than his voters.

One of my favorite Bill McKibbon quotes was one he used in an address to the Bioneers a few years back.
“Nature always bats last”

The assertions by Monsanto are interesting – that “a de facto agreement between the Government of France and Greenpeace/Friends of the Earth whereby the GOF would support the GMO-free movement if activists turned a blind eye to President Sarkozy’s nuclear energy initiatives” existed. Wonder if we will turn on Greenpeace now? Duncan is just reporting what he was told by Monsanto and asking that action be taken re the slurs against USG integrity (that last one we can agree is iffy).

I do not follow Gates, but public info has included his funding research into getting a vaccine into mosquitoes so that their bite would vaccinate a person – this may be what he and Monsanto are working on – or it may not.

GMO crops are too dangerous, IMO – but I have no in depth knowledge on the topic.

All life is interconnected and we are a part of it whether we like it or not. That is how life is working on this planet. This monopoly is introducing chemicals and GMO foods without any oversight and long-term thought because both the Government and Media which are traditional watchdogs have become rubber stamps and this monopoly thinks it has done a great job so far in stifling criticism. Their products are creating bigger problems and probably creating mutations in organisms which no body not even the people developing those products know and these mutations once obvious our science might not even know how to deal with much less to finger point.

We might become the dinosaurs of this age all this due to grand vision of one monopoly trying to control world food supply. If our civilization is lucky not to become one then this monopoly will become the poster boy of bad effects of free market economics. People who can make a change now and are in position to do just want to please and become a rubber stamp, have a fancy dinner for being a rubber stamp thereby putting at risk their own children besides rest of the world population.